World highest monastery: spiritual home to locals

08:25, May 22, 2013

Sitting at the foot of Mount Qomolangma, the Rongbuk Monastery is the highest monastery in the world. Being the spiritual home of the locals, it has attracted loyal believers for more than one thousand years.

"I come here to pray and twirl this wheel every day, no matter what," said La Nu Zeng Ci, a nun at the Rongbuk Monastery.

Life in the temple is quiet and peaceful. There are very little traces of modernity that have seeped in from the outside world. Other than those, things go on just like how they did in the past.

"My life is always like this. I am a Buddhist. I will keep doing what I do, practicing and praying," monk A Wang Wei Si said.

For the monks and nuns of Rongbuk Monastery, little has been changed in their lives as time goes by. But for the younger generation, things are different compared with the past.

In the past decade, the number of visitors to Mount Qomolangma has increased rapidly. The boom has brought new opportunities to the locals.

Local resident Tashi runs a yak team and a teahouse at the Mount Qomolangma Base Camp. "My life is becoming better and better, thanks to the boom of visitors to the mountain," he said.

Standing silently, the Rongbuk Monastery has been a witness to local people's lives for hundreds of years. And it will continue to stand as a spiritual home to them, no matter what directions their lives take.